Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,130
trust to make sure I was aware of all the terms. Since Maddy dropped this like a bomb and that attorney was being cagey, that suggested there was either something to hide or this was some kind of trap.
“Paranoid,” Wittaker commented. “But not undeserved. I can send them a strongly worded letter advising them to provide this information or we will sue.” He glanced at me. “Or we can wait until after your court date in March.”
“What if the emancipation itself breaks some rule of the trust? Or if I choose the wrong school? Or maybe if I got my ears pierced at the wrong age? Do I even care what it is?”
“I can’t answer that question for you. From what you’ve said, you don’t know that much about your grandparents.”
“I didn’t even know there were two of them. Like I said, I only ever met my grandmother, and that was exactly once and she barely even spoke to me.”
“William and Anne Grayson.” Wittaker said their names like I should know who they were, but it was Archie who frowned.
“Seriously? Maddy Curtis is a Grayson?”
“Apparently,” Wittaker stated. “The information on her family was buried. She legally changed her name at twenty-one, and when you were born, she was a Curtis—her mother’s maiden name. The designee on the trust is Francesca Curtis. You’re named after your great-grandmother.”
I had no idea how I was supposed to feel about that.
“Why didn’t that come up in the background you did on her before?” Archie asked. And he had a point.
“It did, but it was excised from the report before it reached me. An oversight that has since been corrected.”
“Edward.” Archie’s expression turned grim, but Wittaker’s expression didn’t shift.
“I’m afraid I can’t disclose that. However, all the excised information has since been restored. I have a better idea of your mother’s history now, if you want to have it.”
Did I?
“I don’t know right now. Honestly, I want less to do with her, not more, and this feels like a lot more.”
“I can understand that. I’ll hold onto it, and when you’re ready, you tell me and I’ll make sure you have it.”
“What about the labs?” Archie asked. “Any movement with them?”
“At the moment, no, but I have contacted an attorney in New York who will handle our filings there, and they are going to begin the process of the suit. It might take time, but unless your mother is willing to give us the information, we may very well have to sue to get it. The lab manager seemed willing to cooperate, but their corporate owners are less flexible and more willing to make us force their hand.”
“You know, it’s like a puzzle I didn’t want. This is all about the past. The trust. The DNA test. All of it. What if I just don’t need to know?” I glanced at Archie. “I know who I am. I know where I am. I know where I want to go. Do I need to know what came before?”
“It’s up to you,” Archie told me, even as he spread his hands. “If it were me, I’d want to know. What I know can’t bite me in the ass.”
“Well, that’s not entirely true. Some things you knew about still bit you in the ass. But I get your point. I just hate wasting more money on this…”
Still, the corner of his mouth kicked up. “Do you want to know, babe? Do you want to have all lingering questions settled so she has zero power over you? Not even information?”
I really did. At the same time…
“Then we keep going.” He linked his fingers with mine. “We’ll figure it out.”
“What are we doing?” I asked as I followed Rachel through her house toward her bedroom.
“A project I’ve been meaning to talk to you about, but you texted last week about Valentine’s Day and what to do for the boys and I have some thoughts.” Rachel guided me through what might cheerfully be described as clutter and chaos to the hallway where her room was.
The last couple of times I’d been here, I hadn’t seen her family but I had heard them. Today, one of her uncles was yelling across the house to her cousin about some game they were playing.
“They’ve never heard of headsets or discord or manners,” she added as her uncle yelled out an obscenity and her cousin laughed.
“How many of you live here? And it’s not like I haven’t heard the word fuck before.”